Passport services in India - Procedures and Documents needed to apply for Passport

This article is about the passport services in India which includes how to get the passport, What are the necessary documents to produce in the passport office and how much time would it take to get your passports after applying in the passport office and police verification.

Introduction to the Passport Services in India

There are various steps that one has to undergo in order to get the passport from the passport and I have taken a try to give what are the various steps that one has to go in order to get the passport. I recently had my passport from the office in Chennai and it was an easy to get thing that takes some time on the run. Passport it is one of the important thing that is essential for the people in the modern world. There are lots of job opportunities that are available abroad and if you have your passport ready it can help you under any circumstances. Often it can also used as a proof for getting bank accounts, pan card etc., there are many companies and individual who are offering passports for some price at your doorsteps.

Services available in the passport centers

Fresh Issue of PassportThis is the service where the applicant goes to apply for the passport for the first time. The applicant has to go through various processes in order to get the passport from the passport office.

Reissue of PassportIf there is some changes in the passport that you have already got with you then this is the option you have got and you need not go for the fresh passport and simply take the old passport you have got and you need to submit them and make the changes that are required to be made to your account.

The Reissue would be needed when1. You have a change in address.2. Change in the information provided in the passport.3. IF the passport is torn or it is hurt.

Procedure for applying passport

You can register the passport through passportindia.gov.in and this would provide you as a gateway to register your passport. Once your passport is applied the date when you have to visit the passport center would be available with the time you are expected in the office. You have to fill the application form that you get after applying the passport and then just take the print out of the application. You should have your presence before itself as there would be a queue in which we are supposed to be there. Though there would be a time specified in the passport application you receive and the time is given just to reduce the length of the queue. You can go to the passport center in any time of the day specified in the passport application. As soon as you enter the passport center try to get the seal as soon as possible from the registrar there and get to the queue and as soon as your number comes as per the seal you can just show your proofs to the officer in the counter allotted to you and pay the payment and your part is over.

Documents that is necessary to apply for the passport

There are many options that are available for you while applying passports. Though there are many certificates that are there the most important certificates are Birth Certificates – Proof of Date of BirthIt is one of the most important certificates that are needed in case the applicant is born after 1990 and in case the date of birth is before 1990 you need not provide Date of Birth certificates.

Ration card – Proof for AddressThis is one of the most expected certificates that are needed for the proof of address but in case you are not having them you have got many other options like Telephone Bill, Electricity Bill, water bill, Pan Card, and License and any of these two would replace the Ration card.

Other proofs neededThere are other proof needed just to know the name of the parents and our name proof and they are Community certificate, Ration Card, Students Identity card etc.,

Passport centers in India

There are nearly 37 passport offices that are issuing passports throughout India. There are also some 462 district Passport cells that are also offering passports in our country. The list of various centers that offer passport includes Ahmadabad, Bangalore, Bareilly, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Chennai, Cochin, Delhi, Ghaziabad, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Jalandhar, Jammu, Kolkata, Kozhikode, Lucknow, Mumbai, Nagpur, Panaji, Patna, Pune, Ranchi, Srinagar, Surat, Thane, Tiruchi, Trivandrum and Vishakhapatnam. Passport is one of the things that are very much in the reach of us as there are many passport cells that are available in most part of the states itself.

Time taken for getting the Passport

Usually it takes about 45 days to get the Passport. But if there is some doubt with some of the certificates or proofs you have submitted then it would take more time based on the doubt that rises in the mind of the officer. It also requires the police verification that is required to get the passport. Within some 30 days of the application of passport you may have to go for the police verification and the police would inspect your address of stay and also would verify the original certificates that you have produced in the passport office. After 15 days of the passport verification you are likely to get the passport if everything goes well.

Passports a major target for Fraudulent practices with the motive of Money

I would say that be aware of such persons who can cheat you by simply providing duplicate passport books and charge you more for that. There are many passengers who face the problem of duplicate passport and are arrested for the same at the airports itself. Before sometime it has been posted in a dailies that lots of fraudulent practices are taking place as far as passports are concerned especially in the states like Tamil Nadu that ranks 1st in case of duplicate passports. It was established out of the 937 cases where the passengers had duplicate passports in 2010 about 250 cases where from Tamil Nadu and the next state that stood in the rank of duplicate passport was Kerala with more than 200 and the third was west Bengal with over 100 duplicate passports.